Modi’s Challenges: A Rejoinder – Nehru cannot be Spared !
K.B. Ganapathy’s Abracadabra titled “Modi must put India House in order before he leaves Office” in Star of Mysore dated Nov. 19 and 20, 2024, is a frank and bold narration of concurrent history. It points to the root causes for the predicament the sacred geography of Bharat is confronted with today. The problems created by Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi have set the challenges before the patriot Narendra Modi.
However, the Abracadabra gives an impression as if the rot began with the regime of Indira Gandhi. This rejoinder will try to substantiate the fact that it all started long before Indira Gandhi, even before Independence, with Nehru, and, of course, during the entire period of his Prime Ministership.
Many of us, born during the forties and fifties, grew up highly influenced by the ‘charismatic personality’ aura of Jawaharlal Nehru. His books, mainly The Discovery of India (1946) and Letters from a Father to his Daughter (1929) shaped our idea of nationalism; political and economic policies during our growing up period. His personal links with the British leaders during the independence struggle was portrayed as extraordinary political capital. November 14, his birthday, became “Chacha Nehru Day,” a National celebration among the children. Thereby, seeding among the young minds loyalty to the Nehru clan.
Gandhiji’s Partiality
However, now our generation has realised as to how Mahatma Gandhi’s endearment of Motilal Nehru, Jawaharlal Nehru and the entire Nehru family resulted in political turns and twists, many of them very diabolic indeed, in the national landscape of pre-independence history. Despite proven political skills, academics and commanding contributions during the Bardoli Satyagraha (an Indian nationalist and farmers’ movement against the colonial government’s increased taxing of farmers) and Salt Satyagraha (an act of non-violent civil disobedience in colonial India) by Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Gandhiji not only sidelined him but gave special importance to Nehru.
0 comments